In order to relieve the burden on lower and middle incomes, Saxony's Minister President Michael Kretschmer (CDU) has shown himself to be open to higher taxes on the rich and inheritance taxes. "Strong shoulders must bear more than weak shoulders," he said in an interview with the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung". "But to make one thing clear here: The discussion does not start with tax increases, but this will perhaps be the last building block in a real modernization agenda."
The CDU federal vice-president called for an overall concept that would secure Germany's price competitiveness for the next ten years. "In order to achieve such a package, we will also have to move," he explained with a view to possible tax increases. On the other hand, he did not consider across-the-board cuts to subsidies to be sensible. "The lawnmower method is not a smart policy. We have to provide voters with a coherent overall picture of what we want and why this is right."
The chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Jens Spahn, had proposed an across-the-board reduction of all subsidies and tax breaks by five percent in order to finance relief. The German government is currently negotiating the reduction of subsidies to plug holes in the budget and to finance the tax reform planned for 2027.
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